XKDR Newsletter - Issue 38
Reforming Indian banking law • Compute capacities for AI • Regulating payment • Improving government procurement • AI and Law • Legal System Reform Seminar • New episodes of Big Ideas and EiE and more
Incremental reform of banking law in India
In a new paper, K.P. Krishnan, Ajay Shah, Susan Thomas, Diya Uday, and Harsh Vardhan examine the legal provisions that undermine the regulatory powers of the RBI including on shareholding, appointment of directors, winding up and making schemes.
The current set of banking laws in India undermine the regulatory powers of the RBI and are not ownership-neutral.
The paper argues for an ownership-neutral regulatory framework emphasising the need for greater autonomy for the RBI, and the creation of a clear separation between the government's borrowing and regulatory role.
The aim is to chart the pathway towards a more robust regulation of the banking sector in India.
Read the paper here.
Assessing ‘Compute’ Capacities and Policy Frameworks for Artificial Intelligence in India
This report authored by Ajay Shah and Karthik Suresh in collaboration with Rajiv Kumar, Abhishek Jha, Ankeetaa Mahesshwari, and Garima Jain of Pahle India Foundation assesss the status of ‘compute’ capacities for artificial intelligence (AI) in India. The authors evaluate policy options that incentivise the production and availability of ‘compute’ resources in India. They highlight the need for reforms in procurement processes, as well as foreign policy measures to ensure the uninterrupted supply of resources required for ‘compute’. The report has implications for the broader range of inputs needed to ensure India’s continued importance in the global market for information technology services.
Read the report here.
OP-ED & COMMENTARY
In his column for the Business Standard, Ajay Shah writes on
Regulating payments better. He argues that when the functions of banking regulation and payments regulation are placed in the same organisation as it currently is, the performance of payments regulation will be weaker because the field of payments will be inordinately shaped by the objective of making banks more profitable. He proposes a two-part solution - one, clarifying the core activities of financial regulation; two, improving the governance arrangement at the central bank to govern payments regulation.
Improving govt buying. In May 2025, India finalised a Foreign Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom. Among other provision, the Agreement offers more extensive access to UK firms to participate in union government tenders. In this context, the author highlights the problems when government carries out a procurement exercise - high transaction costs, delays in decision-making and payments, risks of arbitrary actions, weak contract enforcement - and suggests systemic reforms in domestic procurement processes.
Read more on our work on procurement reforms here.
VIDEOS AND PODCASTS
New episodes of our YouTube show Big Ideas -
In Episode 45, Sanjuktha Athreya, speaks with Professor Raghavendra Rau, the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School on AI and Investment Management: Harnessing Unstructured Data.
In Episode 46, Pavithra Manivannan speaks with Abhas Jha, Practice Manager, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, World Bank Group, on Building climate resilient infrastructure.
This month, Ajay Shah’s YouTube show Everything is Everything with Amit Varma crossed 100 episodes. Latest releases:
The Light in Winter, Ep 97;
Is Your State Legitimate? Ep 98;
Where Indian Regulation Went Wrong? Ep 99;
Ask me Everything, Ep 100;
Metrics for Intervention, Ep 101.
EVENTS
We presented our work on “Empowering litigants with analytics” using public data from courts, at the GenAI and Legal Research track of the AI & Law Forum 2025, hosted by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on 10th May 2025.
We hosted,
A book talk by Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T on their latest book: "Tareekh Pe Justice: Reforms for India’s District Courts". Watch the book talk here.
A talk by Devdatta Tengshe earlier this year on "OpenStreetMap and its role in the Mapping Landscape". The video of the talk is now available.
Upcoming -
We are hosting the 13th Indian Legal System Reform Seminar on 13th June 2025 (4pm to 5.30pm). The event is hybrid.
Amrutha Desikan and Bhavin Patel of Trustbridge Rule of Law Foundation will present on “Using LLMs to improve state capacity in regulatory order writing”.
Siddarth Raman and Susan Thomas of XKDR Forum will present their work titled “Get them to the court on time: bumps in the road to justice”.
Register here to attend.
We are hosting a talk by Amrita Agarwal, on "Taking stock of the Global Development Assistance for Health in the 21st Century" on 20 Jun 2025 (5pm to 6pm). The event is in person at our office.
The talk is on the key findings of a two year effort to review the last 20 years of Global Development pending on health - its nature, assessment of evaluations of program/overall success, assessment of quantitative impact on health outcomes and recommendations for the future.
Register here to attend.
XKDR Forum is an interdisciplinary research and policy organisation harnessing knowledge and capabilities across diverse fields of economics, law, public administration, engineering, statistics and science. We welcome your comments and suggestions on our work.